Strawberry fields not forever

Strawberries are off the menu at Keens Berry Farm in North Otago for the first time in more than 50 years.

It was Peter Keen's parents who started growing raspberries at the Papakaio property in 1950 and then strawberries from 1957.

The venture has always been a partnership, firstly for his parents, Alan and Nan Keen, and then with his wife Chris, from when they took over in 1982.

Following the death of Chris in 2010, Mr Keen has decided to quit the strawberries and have a shortened raspberry season, giving him more free time to visit his nine grandchildren and do "other things".

Very much an animal and bird lover, he has replaced the strawberry patch with six alpacas - Valentino, Casper, Zorro, Nui, Wha and Jake - and some Gotland Pelt sheep, also known as "King Herod and his three girls".

A recent visitor to the popular roadside stall said it was the first year since 1957 he had not been able to get strawberries there.

Long-standing customers ranged up to their 80s and Mr Keen sometimes ran into the first pickers at the berry farm, who were now in their 70s.

"The nice thing is the kids [pickers] today are just as fantastic as they always were in those days," the retired school principal said.

Strawberries were more demanding to grow than raspberries due to the length of the season.

Because they were relatively expensive to plant, unless they were harvested from mid November until April it was difficult to be profitable.

Raspberries had a much shorter season and they could also be frozen, which meant they had more uses than strawberries.

While it had been a great season for raspberries, it had also been the "year of the bird", and Mr Keen had never seen so many birds around.

Mr Keen has also been enjoying having a stall at the "fantastic" Oamaru farmers market, which was established last year; and enjoying the interaction with people.